Some might have questioned whether the concept of “excellence” in government was even worth talking about this year—with the sequester, furloughs and the potential for lean budgets on the horizon. But a lineup of the government’s best and brightest—including approximately 800 900 attendees—showed that the pursuit of excellence was alive and well at this year’s Excellence in Government conference.

With sessions covering everything from leveraging data for better decision-making to building mission-motivated teams, keynotes took federal leaders through 20 years of reform efforts and challenged them to continue building the government of tomorrow.

Addresses from Beth McGrath, Deputy Chief Management Officer at the Department of Defense, Dan Tangherlini, Acting Administrator of GSA and Lt. Gen. John Wissler of the United States Marine Corps

A closing address from Seth Kahan, author of Getting Innovation Right

And countless opportunities for government leaders to come together and discuss shared learning and innovative ways of improving the business of government.

With an enthusiastic crowd taking to Twitter, using the hashtags #EIG2013 and #BeExcellent, to share their thoughts, insights and pictures, we thought it’d be appropriate to share the stories from Excellence in Government 2013 through the eyes of those who experienced it firsthand:

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